Wire unreeling and tensioning device



Aug.23,1932.1 ci J. KELLER 1,873,422

` WIRE UNREELING AND TENSIONING DEVICE Filed ocr. 16. 1930 2 snaps-sheet 1 v NTM @i IW Clarence J. /feler Aug. 23, 1932.

c. J. KELLER 1,873,422

l WIRE UNREELING AND TENSIONING DEVICE Filed oct.4 1e, 1930 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 gmc/Mov Clarence J /leZZer Patented Aug. 23, 1932 UNITED vsra-ras CLARENCE J'.KELLER, OF ANDERSON, INDIAN'-ASSIGNOR T0' DELCO-REM'Y-YCOR-PORA.-

TION, OF ANDERSON, INDIANA, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE l 1- '35,

WIRE UNREELING AND TENSIONINGk DEVICE l i Application led October 16, 1930. Serial No. 489,116.

y This invention relates to apparatus for unreeling wire from a coil orsupply reel'and for taking up the slack in the wire while it is being fed to other apparatus such as a ma- 'chine for cutting off measured lengths' of wire. One type of such unreeling and wire tensioning apparatus is shown in the. copending application of D. V. Atwood, Serial Number 411,056, filed December 2, 1929 now patent No. 1,834,993, issued Dec. 8,1931. In that apparatus the wire is uncoiled from the supply coil or reel'by an unreeling arm which extends transversely above the coil from its operating shaft which rotates substantially co-aXially with respect to the coil. The unreeling arm carries a guide pulley about which the wire passes to the machine which consumes the wire as is well known to those skilled in this art. When the wire is pulled from the supply reel the unreeling arm turns to permit one coil at a time to be unreeled. In order to maintain the wire taut substantially fat all times, means are provided for resisting the turning of the unreeling arm when there is atendency for the Wire to slacken. This means comprises a brake disc attached to the yunreeling arm shaft and cooperating friction member which is caused to be pressed against the 1brake disc when the wire tends to become slac p A@ne of the objects of the present invention is to-provide certain improvements whereby unreeling and wire tensioning devices of this type will be rendered more sensible to variations in the force Vapplied by the wireeconsuming machineto pull the wire from the supply reel. It is particularly an object to secure a. greater uniformity of tension in the wire although the force tending to ,pull the wire from the supply reel may vary greatly.

Y Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description, reference being'had to the accompanying drawings whereinV a preferred embodiment 0f one form of the present invention is clearly shown.

In the drawings: Y

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a machine embodying the present invention, certain IleSS.

"screwing down the nut 27.

parts being broken `away for sake of clear '-5 enlarged l Fig. 2 is a sectional view on an K scale, the section being taken on line Fig. 1. l Fig. 3 isa side elevation particularly a ver- 'tical longitudinal section of the machine shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentaryV view partly in section'of the friction disc andop'erating mechanism. Y

Figs. 5, 6 and 7 are sectional views taken respectively on the lines 5--5, 6-'6' and 7-7 of Fig. 3. Y f f The wire unreeling and tensioning vappal,eo

ratus comprises a table 20 supported by legs `21 and attached at its edge to a band 21 which provides a housing for enclosing the reel of wire A and the unreeling arm 22.

The arm 22 is detachably secured to an un.

reeling arm shaft 23 rotatably supported by bearings 24 and 25 carried by a central pedes tal 26 attached to the table 20. The lower end of the shaft 23 carries the brake disc 30. The upper end of the shaft 23 is threaded to receive a Anut 27 by which the arm 22 is clamped against a block 28. drivingly connected with the shaft 23. The block 28 carries a pin 28a which engages a notch 29 in the arm "22 so that the arm 22 is drivingly connected through the block 28 with the shaft 23. lVhen fthe nut 27 is removed, the arm 22 may be removed from connection with the shaft 23 to permit placing of the reel A upon'thetable 20 and around a `frustrofconical tubular member 31 which` surrounds the pedestal 26. After the reel A is placed upon the table a heavy metal disc is placed upon it landthen the arm 22 is placed in position and isv secured by The wire B is passed aroundV a pulley 33 d supported by a bracket 34 Vhaving a pintle 35 mounted between the arm` 22 and a member 35a which may be welded to the arm.

TheV wire B then passes around apulley 36 vl95 carried by abracket 37. having a pintle 38 kB then passes over a pulley 48 pivotally athook 70 which is Vreceived by any one of aY y Land` thebar 52.

point substantially vertically above the axis of the unreeling arm shaft 23. Pulley ,41 is carried by a bracket 42 having a pintle 43 lpivotally connectedV with a'block 44 attached to a bracket 45 and secured to position by a tapjer pin 46 Vwhich passes through an annular' groove 47 in the pintle 43. AThe wire tached to a bracket 49 attached to an arm 45 supported by the Jtable. Y j

Vire Bthen passes around a pulley 50 pivotally attached to 'a'post 51 supported'by a horizontal bar 52 having one end supported by a pedestal 53 and the other'end (not shown) attached to any suitable support such as the kmachine which consumes the wire. The wire B then passes around a pulley 54 .pivotally supported by the bar`52 in a manner to be vdescribed and then around a pulley 55 pivotally supported by a tension lever 56 pivoted at'57 upon the har 52.' HThe bar 56 is attached to a link 59 (see Fig.l 4) and at 60 to a block 6l which slides vertically along a vtube 62'supported by a bracket '63 attached to the bar 52. The tube'62 guides a vertically movable rod l64 carrying at its upper end a disc 65 coveredlby a disc of friction 'material'66- Motion is transmitted from the block 6l to the disc 65 through a spring 67. A wire tension spring 68 is attached at 69 to the pedestal 53 and at the other end to a series of notches 71 with which the tension y 'lever 56 lis provided.'

lwire B passes around a pulley 72 ipivotally .supported by the bar 52 coaXially with the Ypulley 54.A

After passing aroundl the pulley 55 the Referring to Fig. 2 the bar 52 supports a rod 73 which may move endwise relative to fthe bar 52 but which can not rotate by reason ofthe factthat it is keyed to the bar 52 by keV 74 Yreceived b a lonitudinalf roove 75 Y Y e g inthe rod 73.` The nuts 76 upon the rod 73 confine a coiled spring 77 between the nuts The .spring 77 being in .a state ofcompression, rod 73 is urged toward the rear side of the bar 52 thus causing a Ahead 78 of the rod 73 to bear against the hub h7 9 ofthe fpulley 72 and causing the pulley 72 Therlower end ofthe lever 56 is kprovided 'with a guard 56a for the purpose of coniinv ing the wire B in the groove of the pulley 55.

The operation of the apparatus will now be explained with reference to its use with measuring machine.

a device for cutting olf measured lengths of i wire. Such a device comprises principally a reciprocating gripper which will grip the wire and move it in the direction of arrow of Fig. 3 andl then stop lwhile the measured length of wire is cut off. Just before cutting oi'f this length of wire, a second reciprocating gripper will grip the wire between the Wire cutting knife. and ywire. vtensioning device and will thus hold the end of the wire remaining in the machine after the measured length Ihas beencut off. This second gripper will begin moving in the direction of the arrow 90 as the first reciprocating gripper returns to normal position. It ,willy be readily 'understood by those skilled in this art that the gripper tends to' jerkthe wire particularly when movement of the wire begins, and therefore causes the'wire to'becom'e unduly taut.v When the motion ofthe wire ceasesthe wire between the machine and the Y Ysupply reel becomes unduly slack due tothe tendencyv of the unreeling armito continue its motion after' movement of the wire in the 'measuring machine has ceased. The present inventionyhowever, operates to renderv the tensionof the wire more nearly uniform with variations inthe forces lexerted upon' the wire as it is moved in the direction of the arrow 90 by the gripper device ofthe wire The brake disc 66 is maintained at all times against the Ibrake disc30 located atthelower end ofthe shaft 23. The force causing the disc 66 to move upwardly against the disc 30 Vis delivered through the spring 67 so that this force maybe less or greater according as the block 61 is further away or closer to the disc 66. The .spring 68 causes a certain maiim'um` pressure to be applied through the lever 56, link 59, block 61 and spring 67 and friction disc 66 to the disc 36 thus resisting the turning of the arm 22. Y When the measuring machine starts the wire B into motion, there is a tendency to increase'the tension ,on the wire beyond that which it would normally have ydue to the action of thel spring 68.' The increase in pull on the'wire tends to cause the lever 56 to movecounterclockwise in order toshorten the distance-vbetween the pulley`55 land the pulley 54. This upward movement 'of the lever 56 causes downward movement ofthe block 6l thus increasing the effective length of the spring 67 and diminishing the pressure exerted upwardly by it. 4Sincethe clockwise movement of the lever 56does not arm' 22 graduallystarts into motion. In this way, there is a gradual yielding of `the moving Y `parts of the unreeling device and lhence a `tendency. to relieve a condition of. abnormal tension inthe wire which is approximately in proportion to the tendency to produce abnormal tension in the wire when starting it in motion.

The reciprocating grippers of the wire measuring machine come to rest relatively abruptly. Hence, the wire ceases moving abruptly. There is a tendency, therefore, for the wire to become unduly slack due to the fact that the moving parts of the unreeling device tend to continue motion. However, the tendency of the wire to become slack is accompanied `by clockwise rotation of the lever 56 thereby increasing the pressure applied by the spring 67 to the brake disc 6G. Since this portion is applied through a yielding spring there is a relatively gradual increase of pressure applied to the brake disc 23a. Hence, the unreeling arm 22 is brought to rest by a somewhat gradually increasing braking force which tends to increase the tension in the wire at about the same proportion as the tendency to decrease the tension of the wire when motion of the wire through the measuring machine ceases. plicat-ion of braking pressure or a .sudden release of braking pressure applied to the brake disc 30, jerking of the wire has been very materially reduced 'with the result that there is 1 no substantial breaking of parts of either the unreeling and tensioning device or the machine which consumes the wire.

While the form of embodiment of the present invention as herein disclosed, constitutes a preferred form, it is to be understood that other forms might be adopted, all coming within the scope of the claims which follow What is claimed is as follows:

l. Wire unreeling and tensioning apparatus comprising a support for a coil of wire, a rotatable shaft substantially coaxial with the coil, an unreeling arm carried by the shaft and providing a guide for the wire, and means for variably resisting rotation of said shaft, said means comprising a brake disc attached to the shaft, a friction member movable against the brake disc, a part movable toward or from the brake disc, a spring for transmitting motion from said part to the friction member, and a movable mechanism for controlling the movement of said part, said movable mechanism including a part around which a loop of the wire passes.

2. Wire unreeling and tensioning apparatus comprising a support for a coil of wire, a rotatable shaft substantially coaxial with the coil, an unreeling arm carried by the shaftl and providing a guide for the wire, and means 'for variably resisting rotation of said shaft said means comprising a brake disc attached to the shaft, a friction disc, rod supporting the disc, a guide tube supporting the rod so as to guide the friction disc against the brake disc, a spring surrounding the guide tube and bearing against the friction disc, a block slidable upon the guide tube and bearing By thus avoiding a sudden apnature.

CLARENCE J. KELLER. 

